Re-Thinking Church Membership (Part 22)

Read the entire series of posts here.

A pastor I know tells the story about a former church of his that didn't have a "formal" membership. There were some people there that were living in a pattern of sin, so the pastors decided to confront them with their sin in order to correct them, and restore them to a right relationship with God. The people in sin replied, "since you don't have a formal membership here, we're not members, and therefore you don't have any authority over us to confront us." The pastors agreed, and decided not to pursue the confrontation, and the sinning people were allowed to remain in the church and to continue in their sin. Years later, each of these pastors recalled this instance and used it as a reason in their arguments for constructing "formal" memberships in each of their subsequent churches.

But with the biblical idea that every Christian is already a member of the church they attend simply by the fact that they are a Christian, what the pastors should have said is this: "Not so fast. But you are members of this church because you are members of Christ and you attend here. You are in sin, and we're here to help you back to God." Most arguments that I have heard for man-made "formal" memberships place such blame on rebellious Christians who refuse to obey the church leaders in becoming "formal" members of the church. But the reality is the opposite. Yes, those people in sin are to blame for it, but it was the church that refused to practice discipline because of their church membership doctrine. Because such churches refuse to obey Christ in disciplining sinning people, they allow sin to continue unchecked. Quite often these types of churches complain about "pew-sitters", yet these people are "pew-sitters" because the churches refuse to recognize them as members of the body, and refuse to discipline them to become mature Christians.

In Matthew 18 Jesus did not say, "If your fellow formal church member sins, go to him." He said, "If your brother sins, go to him." Who is one's brother but a fellow Christian? Jesus understood that all His people are members of His body, but many churches don't. Jesus also didn't say, "Church leaders with formal membership doctrines will build my church and the gates of hell won't prevail against it." He said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell won't prevail against it." Formal membership doctrines neglect the treatment of all Christians as fellow brothers, allow sin to exist in their midst, and refuse to help all gain the status of mature Christians.

Part 21 . . . . . . . . Part 23

Death Of A Car

Not long ago I posted about hitting 300,000 miles on my 1990 Honda Accord. Well, this last week it died. It blew an oil seal and the damages are more costly than the car is worth. So, we've all been running around trying to deal with the corpse and find a new car, juggling other things with a borrowed vehicle. Car shopping is not much fun for me, especially if you need one soon. Hopefully we'll score soon, and things will slow down.

We Freak About Stuff

Upon reading through the archives over at Richmond Roadie, I came across this post about finding his high school yearbooks in the garage. He was class of '85 and tells about all the stuff teens did back then that we today would completely freak out about. Chewing tobacco, beer t-shirts, pictures of students drinking wine in hot tubs, smoking, crazy hairdo's, etc. I was class of '82 and remember stuff like that, too. Jocks and stoners, low riders, Cholos, rah-rahs, thespians. Jocks drove "high riders" which were jacked-up muscle cars (I had a Camaro) and burned rubber around every corner. We had a junior high school across the street, so when I turned the corner, I laid some rubber down to scare all the jr. highers. Every day. Stoners were often associated with low riders, although I've since heard that Concord, CA was the only place anybody knew about where the low riders were white kids. Chevy Impalas with fuzzy dice and custom upholstery. Kids too tame to lift a set of hydraulics from a delivery truck usually had their weight set in the trunk to lower the car.

Kids smoked, and we had a smoking section that was near the "portables" and the entire field behind the classrooms. Teachers openly smoked with students, and teachers often smoked in their offices between classes. Kids smoked pot, too, and many of them came to class stoned. Some teachers had beer parties for their students (invite only). We etched rock group graffiti in all our desks, and smoking wasn't allowed in the bathrooms, but it happened anyway. The bathrooms were ruled by the stoners, and they freely smoked pot there. We had an open campus and students were free to leave campus at lunch or recess.

In student government we had a couple of wild comedians run for activities commissioner as a pair. They promised things like tight underwear Bee Gee's sing-alike contests, new ideas for spirit week and such. They won. Their crowning achievement was the annual "Underwear Day." They planned a stage performance for a lunch period with students performing a dance to music in their underwear, chicks too, but with bags over their heads for anonymity. The school administration surprisingly approved, and all the TV news crews came out to film. What the school didn't know was that upon completion of the staged event, all those in underwear would run wildly around the school and out into the streets and shopping center nearby. This made big headlines. The following year, the vice-principal came on the intercom to say that underwear day was cancelled. But it happened anyway, all four years I was there as an underground event. Today we would freak about such things.

Voluntary Justice

Ron McKenzie at Blessed Economist has an interesting series of posts on justice as it is portrayed in the bible and how that would relate to a society built on biblical ideals of justice. It goes against the grain of most of what we moderns have been indoctrinated with on the subject of justice. He argues from the bible that judges in ancient Israel had no power to enforce their legal decisions. Justice was a matter of voluntary submission of the criminal that was convicted. He could either submit to the judge's decision, or he could be forced from the community that he lived in for refusing to submit. The community could exercise power in the form on not engaging with such an individual. Such an individual would be at his own risk due to the lack of others to protect him. He could become part of an outlaw community, but such a thing could be dangerous.

I'm giving a link here to Ron's entire month of April for all the posts in this series.

Blog Feed Survey

How many of my readers use blog feeds to monitor their blogrolls? I've never used a feed and don't know much about them. I use the old-fashioned way of blogrolling through my favorites list. I've heard some say that this is a waste of time, but I also heard somebody say once that correcting spelling mistakes or updating things once something is posted can cause a problem for those who use a feed.

I place some value on hitting a site on my blogroll even though that site hasn't posted in a while. I get to see (remember) what and when the last post was. It keeps that blog fresh in my mind, as I interact with many blogs on a daily basis. A question to those who use a feed to keep up with my blog: does tinkering with my posts cause a problem for you? As an example, just five minutes ago I back-dated a post for housekeeping reasons when I realized I originally accidentally posted it with today's date on it. Did it show up twice? I added labels to ten other posts and republished them. Did you get swamped with feed notices? I'd also like to hear the pro's and con's of using feeds. Thanks!

Blogger Label and Series Problems

I'm running into some problems with Blogger's label feature. I've got a number of ongoing blog series in my margin where I want all posts on that topic available to readers (or myself) just by clicking. Before labels, I made one long post made up of cutting/pasting each post into one large one. The text editor's limited abilities made it difficult and time consuming to do. Once labels came into being, I used them. But now I've found that labels have a 20 post limit. For example, my "Re-Thinking Church Membership" series now stands at 21 posts, only 20 of which are visible, so I've taken to making "sub" labels, grouping parts 1-10 together for the reader to somehow access. And having accepted Bloggers new format, I don't have the "older posts/newer posts" feature available for my readers to delve back into my blog history through a label.

Some bloggers, like Ron McKenzie at Blessed Economist, have a separate website for completed works of writing, and link there. Ron's blog is his thinking-out-loud scratch pad where he formulates ideas. I use my blog to develop ideas, too, but don't yet want to use another source, so I'm stuck with its limitations. I don't want to get another blog host just yet. Any ideas on how to access all posts on a single topic? Thanks in advance.

Re-Thinking Church Membership (Part 21)

Read the entire series of posts here.

Over at Reformed Catholicism, Kevin Johnson makes the argument [Update: link no longer in use] that simply being a Christian is reason enough to be viewed as being a member of a church. To quote:

The reason, for example, that vows of membership are wholly unnecessary simply has to do with the nature of what Baptism already is. Among other things, Baptism is a public profession of faith and serves as the sign of the entrance vow or commitment in our churches–or at least that’s how it should be. The notion that a particular commitment beyond that which we embark upon in Baptism is necessary is frankly going well beyond a biblical understanding of the church and far off normal catholic practice in the matter...

Likewise, churches that pretend that membership vows are necessary to embark upon good church discipline and commitment in their churches also hit well wide of the mark. What commitment isn’t implicitly or explicitly made in Baptism that is reflected in these church vows that are made when a new family joins these churches? Why is an additional post-sacramental vow necessary to reaffirm what has already been promised in converting to Christ?...

Put simply, if you are a Christian you are already a member of the Body of Christ.

Read the whole article. [Update: link no longer in use] Kevin makes some great points.

Part 20 . . . . . . . . Part 22

I'm Still Here

I haven't posted in several days. Busy, busy, busy with other things. I'll hopefully post again this weekend.

The Law Written On The Heart

According to all I've been taught, non-believers have God's law written on their heart. So they have no excuse. And when God saves a sinner, He writes His law on that person's heart.

Why the redundancy? What purpose would writing the same thing have? But Romans says that natural man has the work of the law written on his heart. I'd have to say that the law and the work of the law are two different things. Maybe?

Compassion, Need and Greed

Quoting the post in its entirety, here is the Blessed Economist:

A good quote from Joseph Sobran.
"Need" now means wanting someone else's money. "Greed" means wanting to keep your own. "Compassion" is when a politician arranges the transfer.

Belated Easter Week: Easter Sunday

Good Friday was the death of Christ. But Easter Sunday is the resurrection. It is one thing to have our sins dealt with (which is pretty major), but to gain newness of life is the better thing. What good is it to be released from prison if there's nowhere to go? I view the resurrection as central to Christianity.

The Music Is Reversible

At the heart of the debate between the Covenantal and Dispensational views of the covenant(s) is the argument of continuity or discontinuity from Old to New Covenant. Covenant theology stresses continuity and dispensationalism stresses discontinuity.

Yet, in the area of music in the church, they quite often switch positions. The hard core covenanters often hold a "biblical" position limited to the singing of psalms alone, a cappella, completely ignoring both the instruments used in the psalms themselves and the "continuity" that would invite their heavy use today. Dispensationalists on the other hand often sing only "spiritual songs", citing the New Testament reference as replacing the Old way, yet use every instrument that makes a sound (without reference in the NT for validation).

So much for systematic theology...

I Haven't Been Bored In Over Ten Years

When I was young, I was bored quite frequently. When I got a car and then when I was old enough to go out on the town, I was always bored. I always had to wait on my friends to get together, etc. I had time on my hands. Now, I've been so busy with life, I haven't been bored in over ten years. Not a dull moment.

Opening Day

It's that time of year again. Opening Day of the baseball season. It should be a national holiday in America. It is as close to that as possible in Cincinnati, as a tradition. Setting aside the "regular season" games already played last week between the Oakland A's and Boston Red Sox in Japan, tonight's game in Washington DC's new stadium marks the real start to the season. Tomorrow and Tuesday mark opening days for all other clubs, with home opening days to occur later for those clubs starting the season on the road. My Giants will take on their bitter rivals the Dodgers tomorrow in Los Angeles, but their home opener won't occur until the following Monday.

Opening Day is a wonderful day where all hopes are renewed, if not for the possibility of winning the World Series then for the expectation that there will be a game to go to or listen to on the radio almost every day for the next six months. Baseball is a great game, and I hope many of you out there will be able to enjoy the day, whatever team you cheer for. Even if you live in New Zealand or the Middle East and might know preciously little of American baseball, I'll try to live the day for you vicariously and talk it over with you in the kingdom to come. You will by then have been so perfected in patience that you won't mind me rambling about it for an extended period of time.

Belated Easter Week: Good Friday

Good Friday is called such because even though Christ's crucifixion was brutal and bloody, our sins were laid upon Him. Our sins are atoned for. His cry of "it is finished" meant the deal was done. As good as Good Friday is, it is only part of the story. The other part is better. More to come...

Christian Liberty

For a long time, whenever I heard the term "Christian liberty" I usually associated it as a reactionary term against the evils of legalism. No drinking, no dancing, no listening to FM radio. "Hey, we have Christian liberty" was the protesting response. Then an explanation came to mind about the positives of what activities we have liberty to engage in. Wine is God's creation that was given to us to enjoy, or defenses of certain genres of music. I don't fault anybody for taking these things on. But where I made a mistake in this thinking, is that Christian liberty is limited to these things; it is a mere reaction to legalism.

But the scope of Christian liberty is much greater. Christ came so that we may have liberty. Liberty is essentially the freedom to do what is good. Yes, it includes drinking a beer or listening to the Beatles (or not!), and giving thanks to God for those things (or for not doing these things), but exercising our liberty to do good - any good - is part of Christian liberty. Buying some land, tilling the ground and feeding people with your produce is part of Christian liberty. Starting a family and training your children in the ways of the Lord is part of Christian liberty. Writing a book, having a career, changing the world with acts of good, inventing something, producing wealth, helping the poor and disadvantaged, advancing God's kingdom. These are all part of liberty. Let us fully engage our liberty upon the world for the cause of Christ.

(p.s. Jason's post inspired my writing of this. I've wanted to write this for a while, so thanks, Jason for the trigger, even though it's not directly related to your post.)

Things That Annoy Me

There are a few things in this world that really annoy me. One is when somebody installs a roll of toilet paper with the loose end being loose on the back side of the roll. This makes it almost impossible to grab the loose end, as it is both obstructed by the roll itself, and once the roll is unrolled to expose the loose end, the loose end clings to the wall so as to not be grabbable. Toilet paper was meant to be installed so the loose end comes over the top as if to say, "grab me." Mrs. Scott is an over-the-top toilet paper roll installer, so I know I married well, but I can't say as much for the janitor at work. You would think that after at least a hundred years of toilet paper being used by billions of people in Western culture, that this thing would have been figured out by now.

Bugs annoy me. They really annoy me if they get into the house. Lady bugs excepted. There's one on the header to the hall door now. It's orange with black spots. Dog crap on my lawn annoys me. No, wait. It makes me want to go postal; it infuriates me. Stupid bumper stickers annoy me, unless they're so stupid as to be funny. Being annoyed annoys me. Some times I'm so annoyed at being annoyed that it's really annoying.

Yahoo Spam-Block Problems - Any Help?

I don't know what criteria ISP's use to determine what spam is, but I've developed a problem with my Yahoo account. Suspected spam is put into a "bulk" mail folder. If it's not spam, you can simply click the "not spam" button to take it off the spam list. But my "not spam" button has disappeared from my bulk mailbox toolbar. Yahoo keeps the bulk mail around for a while, but I have to manually move it to my inbox. Regular emails (like site hit software reports) and recent email exchanges with friends (Gene) are being marked as spam. I don't know how to restore the "not spam" button. Any ideas?

Steve Scott's Economic Stimulus Package

If raising the minimum wage by a very small amount, like 25 cents per hour, is good, then raising it by more is better. Why think small?

Here's my plan. Raise the minimum wage to $1 million per hour. Based on a 2080 hour work-year, every working American would become a billionaire in only six months. Enough people would then retire to make room for all the unemployed to become billionaires in as little time. Our entire country could then retire and hire the rest of the world to do everything. It might take a few years, but the whole world could be billionaires, we could all retire, and life would be perfect forever.

Just think, I could buy season tickets to all baseball teams everywhere, and go to any game I like. I could even travel to Antarctica. Write your Congressman or woman.

Belated Easter Week: Maundy Thursday

I beg the pardon of those more liturgical than myself, but I really have no clue what Maundy Thursday is. Blame it on my non-denominational background, I guess, but some regard one day above another, and some regard every day alike. I think I first heard the term just last year. I gather that it has something to do with the last evening Jesus spent with His disciples before being crucified.

Belated Easter Week: Palm Sunday

Jesus came into Jerusalem with fanfare and recognition as the king. But I read a historical commentary a few years ago that added a dimension to Jesus' motives, and I found a small clip from Googling the triumphal entry that echoes it. Apparently, Jesus not only entered Jerusalem to show His kingship, according to these authors He did so in a calculated way to make an enormous political statement. He entered at the same time that Herod did, in full mockery of Herod's kingship. Herod, as king of Judea and knowledgeable in the Jewish religion, would have entered the city for the great feast. Kings did such things with fanfare, pomp and circumstance.

Jesus spent much of His time in the stories of the four gospels "in the face" of authority. He rebuked the religious leaders of His day quite often to their faces, mocked them in His actions, and openly defied their traditions in front of them. He rebuked Pontius Pilate to his face. It doesn't surprise me to read of His triumphal entry in the same way. (Read blog post here).

Withholding The Truth

"I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" John 16:12

"You can't handle the truth." Jack Nicholson - A Few Good Men

Jesus withheld things from His disciples because they were not able to bear what He had to say. They were not at a point yet to eat meat; they were babes in many ways, and could only handle milk.

Sometimes people make an issue out of not getting the truth told them, not understanding that they don't have the capability to understand or to bear the consequences of knowing the truth. The truth for them is a cause of consternation and upheaval. Sometimes this can only be discerned of those people by starting to tell them truth. Sometimes this isn't a good idea, and should end as soon as it starts.

Belated Easter Week

I wanted to comment on the days of celebration for Easter week, but wasn't able to. I'm hoping to do a belated series of posts this week. I'd like to post on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and on the Sabbath in between, and maybe St. Patrick's Day as well, since it fell in Easter week this year.

Lucky To Be A Calvinist

I have been what is called in theological terms a five-point Calvinist since about five years before my conversion to Christianity. Calvinism holds that people aren't self-determinite in relation to salvation. Well, then, how lucky am I to be a Calvinist? Dang lucky. Today, I consider myself to be the luckiest man on the face of the earth, that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you.

Zoning Laws (Part 12) Zoning as Theft

Read entire series here.

Jim Fedako at Anti-Positivist carries one of his own articles on zoning laws. He suggests that zoning laws constitute theft of private property, and those who support zoning laws are the thieves. Read it here.

Part 11 .

The Calendar Week

This was a busy calendar week. Palm Sunday on Sunday, St. Patrick's day on Monday, first day of spring on Thursday, full moon on Friday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday. We're going to my folk's house for Easter dinner, so the kids can also see grandma and grandpa. We missed our church's Good Friday service tonight. We couldn't get childcare covered and the baby was under the weather enough to help make that decision. Our kindergartner is off of school this coming week and my annual review for work is on Monday. I'll be asking for a million dollars an hour raise to cover for gas to get there. Pray for me!

While Harry Was Sleeping In Seattle, Sally Got Mail

I've often wanted to make a movie parody that skewered the romantic comedy genre. It would be the perfect romantic comedy because both sexes could enjoy it. It would actually contain a romantic plot, so the chicks would watch, but it would be a mocking of the whole idea - a comedy - so the dudes could watch, too.

I would combine all the cheesy plot material of all the favorite romantic comedies (When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail, While You Were Sleeping, Sleepless in Seattle, Notting Hill, Wedding Planner, etc.). I would use real actors, but not stars, that had names that were very close to the names of real romantic comedy stars. Names like Julie Roberts, Tim Hanks, Marge Ryan, Jennifer Lopes. I would even splice movie titles together to get the super parody name - While Harry Was Sleeping in Seattle, Sally Got Mail. I would watch it.

Slow Blogging Week

It has been an unexpectedly slow blogging week for me due to the rest of life. I hope to get back to regular types of topics shortly.

In A Trance

I have become a regular listener to a genre of music known as trance. It is an electronic music (European) like that heard in dance clubs, and I find it helpful to listen to at work. It is interesting enough and has enough energy that it helps me get in the groove, yet is not so musically intricate that it distracts me in pulling my attention away from work to listen. A great background music. Hear it at http://www.di.fm/ and use the "listen now" dropdown to find trance among a whole range of electronic music. Enjoy.

Stupid Blogs Update

The woman on the freeway was a good friend of mine and we were joking around.

My Stupid Blogs

On the freeway this morning, a woman next to me started honking at me. My exit was the next one, and we happened to stop next to each other at the light. She rolled down her window and told me that my blogs were stupid. Some people.

Argument For A Three-Party System

James Leroy Wilson nails my beliefs on the head in his post about the advantages of having a three-party political system. With three parties, there would be a vastly reduced chance of one party ruling, or with the two existing parties ganging up on the people through "bi-partisan" legislation. More arguing, bickering, in-house fighting, confusion and chaos would result from a three party system, drastically reducing the efficiency of the government being able to function. Without a functioning government, liberty for the people would be greatly increased. I'm all for it.

Market Correction and Attitude

Economists say that the market is making a correction to the housing bubble. I've been anxious about things lately, and my anxiety has made me so tired the last two days that I don't even care about what I was anxious about. Attitude correction.

Making The Invisible Church Visible -OR- Re-Thinking Church Membership (Part 20)

A long-standing doctrine in Christian history is the doctrine of the invisible church. This doctrine makes a distinction in God's church. It holds that there are "true believers", the ones who are truly saved, but known only to God (hence the "invisible"). This group of people are distinguished from the "visible" church, which is the group of people in its totality who are part of churches. The distinction is made that although there are many people in the church, not all of them are truly saved, as there are false believers in the midst of the church which cannot be readily identified by mere men.

I have recently abandoned belief in the doctrine of the invisible church. I think it is a theological construct that has no real practical basis in this world. One of my reasons for doing so is due to the ironic applications that people make of this doctrine to real life. In my arguments and discussions with those who disagree with me about what constitutes church membership (an example in the comments section here), I've discovered that most of these people use the doctrine of the invisible church in order to identify God's true sheep. They feel the need to construct a formal membership so that pastors can know who they are responsible to pastor. But this betrays a lack of belief in the invisible. Trying to make visible what only God can see is ultimately an attempt to be equal to God. It turns their doctrine upside down. If God is the only One who can see who his elect are, then any attempt on earth to identify these people can only result in failure because we creatures are not God. It's just that simple.

What these people are saying is this: we cannot walk in faith that in ministering to each person who assembles with the church that all of God's people are covered; instead we must walk by sight by only ministering those who we deem as God's true believers that are written down in ink on a list we made. Walking by faith is not possible (and a burden, by the way), therefore walking by sight is necessary.

The New Testament gives no means to divide God's church in this way, and the only expression of the church is the local church; a church of assembled people to claim to believe in Christ.

(For the entire series of posts on re-thinking church membership, click here.)

Part 19 . . . . . . . . Part 21

Blog Plug: Islam and Christianity

What I originally found to be an interesting blog that shed some facts on Islam, has turned out to me to be a very fascinating slice of real life in the real world. Abu Daoud writes on his blog, Islam and Christianity, which is subtitiled, "This blog is written by a Christian living in the Middle East. My desire is to discuss Islam and Christianity in ways that will be helpful for people of the other religion."

Abu's blog isn't some warmed-over extension of the post-9/11 image of Islam that we have courtesy of the mainstream American media. He is an intelligent, articulate, educated, well blog-read, passionate Christian who actually lives in the Middle East, and gives a depth to his topics in a way that few Americans can even imagine, much less experience. He writes not only about Islam and Christianity, as separate religions, but about the entire history of their interaction. Also, he writes much about the Koran, Islamic theology, Sharia law, folk religion, Muslim influence in Europe, Africa and America, unreached people groups, and personal interaction with Muslims where he lives.

A must read for anybody interested in Islam or Middle Eastern culture.

Political Worldviews

James Leroy Wilson essentially shows the folly of holding to only one possible solution to our country's problems - a political one. One's political views will only end up giving the opposition a way to label an individual in a negative light. Read his post here.

Blogging Off Days and Spying

So I go one solitary day without blogging and Gene Redlin at Northern Gleaner is all over it. I know this post is dated Wednesday even though it is Tuesday night after midnight, so in my reality, Monday was a day without posting. Maybe Gene is spying on me. Or maybe it is a prophetic utterance. Maybe a subliminal message. Maybe out of fear that he will lose one of his regular reads. I guess the world does revolve around my blogging. Or, maybe it's just a coincidence.

Anyway, there seems to be three ways of counting days. The ancient Jews counted days from sundown to sundown. We Westerns count days from 12:00 midnight to 12:00 midnight. I count days by when I go to bed and when I wake up. I only went one day. I could blog for a week about what kind of day it was.

House Cleaning

I've reworked my blogroll and other links. The blogroll section now contains most of the sites I personally engage, while the "other links" section contains sites I visit frequently, although not as often or maybe not as engaging. Of course, if a blog is listed, it doesn't necessarily mean that I endorse their views, just that I read them. Oh, and I mopped the floor at 4am. But you knew that.

Mopping The Floor And Other Trivialities

So why am I mopping the kitchen and bathroom floors at 4:30am? I've recently fallen into a habit of falling asleep in the La-Z-Boy late in the evening, short of my bedtime, only to wake woefully early without the ability to fall back asleep. Tonight it was after feeding the baby. Mrs. Scott took him from my arms and put him down while I slept. The chair is rough on my back and I don't get all the usual stuff in like brushing my teeth. So, I woke after 3am, took care of other business and started mopping before 4am. Now to blog.

Regular maintenance of a home is better than letting things go. Mowing the jungle in the back yard is an example. I mowed it last weekend (or the weekend before) so this time it took much less time.

Maybe I can go to bed and get a few hours. The clocks have been set already so I know what time it really is. I heard a funny one on the radio. The DJ reminded us all to set our gas pumps ahead one dollar this weekend.

The Poor You Always Have With You

"And while He was in Bethany at the home of Simon he leper, and relining at table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head. But some were indignantly remarking to one another, "For what purpose has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor." And they were scolding her. But Jesus said, 'Let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to Me. For the poor you always have with you, and whenever you wish, you can do them good; but you do not always have Me.'" Mark 14:5-7

I've wanted for a while to write about Jesus' statement about the poor always being with us. A friend once talked about this to me, that it was a hard statement. Why are there poor people and why would they always exist?

First, why are some people poor? Some people are born poor and have no way out of their poverty. Some people are poor because they are stupid and cannot hang onto wealth. Some people are poor because others have stolen from them. Some people are poor because others have mismanaged their money. Some people are poor because their government makes them poor through bad policies. And, some people are poor because God's providence makes them poor.

I'm a firm believer that sin is the largest determiner of people being poor. Not necessarily the sins of the poor themselves, but any sin. God gave Adam and his descendants the whole world to rule over, but because of sin, the world is cursed, and most people are poor.

Psalm 121

Recently I have been gravely afflicted by God's providences. Or maybe more accurately, I have afflicted myself with my mind's projection of what I consider to be the logical consequences of my current circumstances. So at what I consider to be my lowest point in years, my pastor's call to worship this Sunday was Psalm 121, my favorite Psalm. It provided instant relief for a short period of time. I thank God for that reading.

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from whence shall my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night
The LORD will protect you from all evil; he will keep your soul.
The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever.

Sick At Home Today

I developed some respiratory ailment yesterday, and woke up this morning with a fever. I've got that slight dizziness that often accompanies a fever or flu like illness. So, here I am at home. Usually when I'm home from work like this, I will suddenly realize that I feel fine and wonder why I'm here. Better get up to do something. Then standing up and walking will make me dizzy and make me realize why I'm home.

Why Do Women Hate Snakes?

Keith Darrell at In Athens has a short short about a scientific study as to why we fear snakes. I extended it specifically to women. Garden of Eden proven by science?

Re-Thinking Church Membership (Part 19)

Read the entire series of posts here.

One church I attended for about 8 months had what is known as "closed communion." This meant that only "formal" members, who had achieved formal, man-made membership status were allowed to participate in baptism or communion. Even though I was a convert to Christ and had all the visible outward signs of being a believer, this church wouldn't allow me to participate.

After my 8 months there, this church decided that it was time for somebody like me to pursue membership. They held an extremely high view of "membership." I had already been told that the church would make an excruciating examination of every detail of my life, which would last about 8 months, then after making a formal application to membership the congregation (members only) would vote on whether they thought I was Christian or spiritual enough to be allowed in. But, Jesus taught that Satan sowed tares among the wheat. Now, this church was going to allow tares in their midst to vote on who is wheat? Makes me wonder how much wheat is really there.

Anyway, one night at a prayer meeting I found out the reality of the whole thing. Two categories of prayer were always included, prayer for the unbelievers and prayer for the brethren. Well, this one night the church added a third category of people to pray for, the "unchurched." These were people who attended church every Sunday, were involved in everything, but had never committed to "formal membership." They were in a state of grave sin. So this group of people prayed fervently that night, including emotional pleas to God to right the sin of such people, fist pounding and all. How convenient it was that I was the only one there who fit such a category. They used a prayer meeting to preach to me about membership. The only thing they didn't mention was my name. Legalistic as the church was, this was the final straw. I left the church after that meeting, quietly and without telling anybody why. I was very dejected. Nobody even called to find out why I was no longer attending. I did receive one call from a friend about six months later.

Part 18 . . . . . . . . Part 20

Baseball On The Radio!

Today marks the first radio broadcast of Giants baseball from spring training. One of the greatest joys of winter is listening to the first game. Oh, what a day. Can't wait!

A New Convert to Catholicism

Erik Twist, of Priests and Paramedics, part of my blogroll for a long time, has recently converted to Roman Catholicism. Read why here.

Pilgrims Pub

I found a website (by a Christian) that is dedicated to beer. Both its consumption and the doctrine of moderation. It is called Pilgrims Pub. (Hat tip to Abu Daoud). I'm adding it to my links.

John Armstrong - Friend

Today, I attended a seminar given by John Armstrong at City Church in San Francisco. I arrived early and got to talk to him before anybody else came in. It was a pleasure chatting with him. John is a gracious man who shares much with me in both theology and baseball. I consider it a privilege to consider him a friend.

Storm Fizzles

The storm that was didn't turn out very strong. The most intense storm in 15 years that was supposed to bring 75 mph winds brought only about 40 mph winds with a moderate amount of rain. That worked for me as I drove through the storm to San Francisco this morning.

McIntyre's Tavern Is Closed

McIntyre's Tavern has poured its last pint. Andrew McIntyre has recently been ordained a priest in the Anglican church and has closed the Tavern. I'm not sure if those two things are linked, but I'm substituting another of his blogs in my blogroll, Veni Emmanuel.

What I Do For A Living

Just in case some of you don't know what I do for a living, here goes. I am an architect. Small "a." If I use a big "A", the State might find it a matter of "justice" to give me an orange jump suit and a new boyfriend. Anyway, I have neither a license (my firm may want this to change in the next few years) nor a degree. I'm probably one of the last ones to work my way up through the ranks with on-the-job experience counting for most of my being.

I work for a large firm. We do more than residential architecture, but we're the largest and most prestigious residential firm in all of Northern California. My specific task for the last three years is to be a plans reviewer. Just like a teacher takes a red pen to students' homework, so I take the red pen to sets of plans before they go out of the office to be built. Kind of a quality control. For twenty years I did drafting, creating the plans (i.e. blueprints), now I make sure others do it right. With a helpful attitude, of course. And they pay me to do it. So, there you have it.

Blogger Spell Checker Back On?

It seems my Blogger spell checker is back to working. I never found out why it wasn't, but I'll welcome it back.

Storm A-Brewin'

It's just starting to sprinkle right now. We're supposed to be hit today with the most intense rain storm in 15 years. Not the most rain or the longest in duration, but the most intense at the time it is falling. I can't wait. Mrs. Scott is now at the store and she can't wait either. I just hope the power stays on because Mrs. Scott has a stew on in the slow cooker for dinner.

Re-Thinking Church Membership (Part 18)

Read the entire series of posts here.

One of the reasons I decided to do a series on church membership is due to my experiences with formal church memberships and how their straying from what the bible teaches can affect people's lives for the worse. As an example, after my conversion to Christianity it took four churches a total of two years to baptize me. It wasn't until this fourth church that I was even allowed to participate in the Lord's Supper. Allowed. Two of the first three churches I attended forbid both my baptism and my partaking of the elements - despite my being commanded by Scripture to do both - because I wasn't a "formal" member of their church.

Now one would think that a church would be more than happy to baptize a new convert to Christ. One would think that a church would be more than happy to commune with a fellow believer in Christ. What would possess a church to say to somebody, "we won't baptize you"? What would possess a church to say, "No, thank you, we don't want to break bread with you."? A church that thinks of a formal membership more highly than the life of believers, more highly than the sacraments, more highly than Jesus Himself. Why would a church make formal membership more important than the most important thing of all?

Part 17 . . . . . . . . Part 19

Lunar Eclipse

The lunar eclipse was spectacular tonight. I don't know if I've ever seen a total eclipse. My six year old said it looked like an eyeball.

The Psychology Of The End (3)

A Different Kind Of Look At Eschatology

Many "ends" have come in the history of man. Many groups have predicted the end of the world. Other ends have been postulated, such as Y2K. People's behavior has radically changed as a result. Although Y2K wasn't the "end of the world" per se, many people stockpiled arms in bunkers in Montana or Idaho in waiting for the collapse of the government following the global failure of computer chips. My church gained a few families from a church up the road because their pastor moved his family to a bunker in Montana in mid 1999 and closed down the church. In December, I bought several months of canned goods to protect myself "just in case." In the year 999, people feared the end of the world because it was a thousand years since Christ came to earth.

In 1994, my first church, led by Harold Camping, had quite a shaking up as a result of Camping's end of the world prediction. He first made his prediction public in 1992. Many people did strange things while facing the end. Some people quit jobs, some people cancelled bible studies, some people out of jobs delayed getting new ones, some people gave huge sums of money to Camping's ministry - even entire life savings - to "get the gospel out" at the last minute. Although I wasn't at that church until the week after the prediction date, I heard plenty of stories about odd things. Just two days earlier, their church picnic had people giving tearful goodbyes to one another. Church leaders were up late at night answering phone calls from terrified parishoners. Some people dropped out of life after the end didn't occur.

In the bible, Paul warns Timothy that men named Hymenaeus and Philetus were teaching that the resurrection already took place and that it was upsetting the faith of some believers. The end has a powerful affect on people, so it should come as no surprise that one's view of eschatology can greatly affect how people live in the here and now.

(2) .

Why Is There So Much Evil In The World?

Because God lets each one of us do what we want to do. It's just that simple.

The Psychology Of The End (2)

A Different Kind of Look at Eschatology

In my first post, I looked at how people change their behavior - sometimes even radically - when the end of a thing is approaching. Each of the examples I gave was for things where the timing of the end was generally known at the beginning. There are also things for which the end can come suddenly or unexpectedly. In life, we generally are born, go through childhood, become grownups with our own life, engage in a career, plan for retirement, retire, then eventually die. But a diagnosis of a terminal disease part way through life will change somebody's behavior radically. Some people quit their jobs to be with their families. In baseball, rain can threaten to bring the early end of a game. The team that is leading will hurry to get an official game in by completing the 5th inning, while the losing team will delay. Then, once the 5th inning is complete, the teams reverse their roles. Behavior changes with an unexpected facing of the end.

With regards to the end of the world and the return of Christ, Jesus tells us not only that we won't know the day or hour, but that we will not even know the times or seasons. I believe that God is wise enough to know human behavior, and if man knows the time of the end, he will most certainly change his behavior - radically. This is why God doesn't let us know. God has a plan of normal, routine behavior for us, and He wants us to stick to the plan that He laid out. If we know the end (really, if we think we know the end), we will change our behavior accordingly so that in anticipation of the end, we will change our focus from obeying God to obeying what we think about the end. We will have ceased to obey God. We will have changed from walking by faith to walking by sight. Next, I'll look at how this has fleshed its way out in history, including my personal history, and how different eschatological viewpoints affect our behavior.

(1) . . . . . . . . (3)

The Psychology Of The End (1)

A Different Kind of Look at Eschatology

In sports, each team has a game plan. In football it might be to establish the run, then develop the pass, all the while controlling the line of scrimmage, field position and the clock. Following the game plan will result in victory. In baseball it might be to have the starting pitcher go six or seven innings, then turning it over to the bullpen to finish the game. In higher education, the student can have a game plan. Before the semester, he buys all his books. Then he studies hard, does all his homework and uses all of this to become familiar enough with the material to not only pass the midterm and final exams, but to get an "A." Living in a home with a yard might consist of mowing the lawn, painting and general maintenance. A game plan for these things consists of routine, repetition and consistency. But the game plan is best when it is a comprehensive one. One where all the situations are considered and can be addressed when faced. One that will not let small things grow into big problems.

But when the end of a thing is near, game plans and strategies change, sometimes radically. A team that is losing in the last minute of a football game will ditch all of its routine strategies and engage in acts of desperation, doing things it would never do at any other time of the game. With a runner on third early in a baseball game, the defensive team may concede the run to get an out. When it's the winning run in the 9th inning, both the infield and outfield are pulled in in a desperate attempt to get the out at home plate. A basketball team will purposely foul the other team in hopes that it misses the free throws in order to get the ball back. A hockey team will abandon its goalie for an extra offensive player to try to tie the game. A student will suddenly cram for finals. If a house is to be torn down to make way for a bigger project, the lawn won't get mowed. A graphics project with a deadline will result in long hours, plenty of coffee and scraps all over the floor at the last minute. Conversely, a team that is winning at the end of a game will be lazy and slow on purpose, substituting inferior players, etc.

The same things occur in real life with regards to eschatology. If somebody believes the end is really and suddenly near, life will be lived in a completely different manner, even if in desperation or laziness. In my next post, I will deal with this reality.

. (2)

Good Weather

There are usually those days in cold January where a short springlike weather spell sets in and there are 70 degree temperatures. Such was the case last year, but this year saw no such days. January was wet and cold and foggy. But last Friday, things warmed up and we've had several days in the 60's. Sitting in my car in the sun out at lunch is quite nice. It won't last forever, as it never does, and we'll have cooler weather sooner or later.

Spam and Telemarketing

Over the last few decades I've heard quite a bit of complaining about telemarketers. Over the last decade it's been about spam. There's an easy solution. If telephone numbers and email addresses were viewed as private property, an owner could post a "no trespassing" or "no soliciting" sign, and telemarketers and spammers could be held criminally liable for trespassing when they send their unwanted messages, with restitution owed the owner. Also, I'm surprised that phone companies and ISP's haven't taken to using passwords for everyday phone calls and emails. Maybe things are already this way and I haven't noticed. Or maybe phone numbers and email addresses really aren't private property after all. Anybody out there know?

Things Are Better Now?

I recently did a comparison of my life and living with that of my dad. The results are quite interesting and revealing of life in America today - or at least the San Francisco Bay Area.

He was 32 when he bought his current house. I was 40. He had what was considered a blue collar job, a cop. I am a senior level white collar professional, an architect. He started out as a traffic officer and never had a promotion. I started out on the low end and have had many promotions. He had a brand new three bedroom, two bath house built for him. I bought a 60 year old, two bedroom, one bath fixer upper. He got a single 30 year, fixed loan; I got two adjustable rate loans that are due to go market value in less than two years. I couldn't afford a fixed loan; it didn't matter anyway because I didn't qualify even though I have the highest credit rating anybody has ever seen. He lives in a more affluent community in central county in a peaceful neighborhood on a cul de sac; we live on the fringes of the county in a blue collar neighborhood two blocks from a major oil refinery. His house has twice the market value mine does, is already paid for and has a tenth of the property taxes.

I'm not so sure America is better off than it was forty five years ago.

Survey Results: Eschatological Anarchy

Thanks to all who replied to my survey on eschatology. I had no idea I would get the varied responses I did. A few observations are in order.

With one exception, each of the respondants had either some doubts or uncertainty about future events. I find it odd that many people I've known in my Christian life have reserved their most dogmatic sentiments for eschatology - for things that haven't even happened yet! Billy Goat admits switching positions, and Gene is looking into another view. Abu plays it safe with a historical creedal summary of givens. Me, personally, I'm on my fourth (or fifth depending on how you count them) different view of eschatology. I've held to dispensational pre-mil, a-mil (two varieties if you count Harold Camping's a-mil as different from traditional), historic pre-mil and now a variation on post-mil.

Bruce is very correct in stating that where one begins determines where one finishes. What is God's purpose for creating the earth and putting man here is a question whose answer will greatly affect one's view of eschatology. But a warning: the opposite is just as true. One's view of eschatology, if that view is putting the cart before the horse, can gravely affect one's view of life and purpose for living. It can even be greatly destructive. I have personal experience with such a view, and hope to soon share some of the important aspects on this blog.

Eschatology Survey

I'd like to survey my readers (regular or drive-by) as to which view of eschatology you hold. Are you Pre-Millenial? Amillenial? Post-Millenial? Preterist? Partial Preterist? Other? Combination? If you are Pre-Mil, are you dispensational (rapture, 7 year tribulation, 1000 year earthly reign) or historical (no tribulation, but Christ returns for 1000 year earthly reign)? I'd like to know. Thanks!

PERFECT CHOKE!

In the single most devastating loss in NFL history, the New England Patriots fell short of the greatest season ever by the smallest of margins. Yet it was the greatest of margins. In an 18-1 season, there is only one game that is impossible to lose and the Patriots did the impossible. Their glory was reduced to an insignificant blip on the radar of the 2007 season. Congratulations to the New York Giants, wild card team that played every one of their playoff games on the road.

All the talk for two weeks about Tom Brady equaling Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana will be put off for at least another year. All the talk about the Patriots being among the greatest dynasties will fade for a while. It should never have been brought up. They are a full two Super Bowls and one hall-of-fame quarterback short of the 49er dynasty of 1981-1995. The 49ers won five Super Bowls and had two hall-of-fame quarterbacks, Joe Montana and Steve Young.

It was a great game down to the last play, which made the game worth it by itself. On a side note, I wasn't sure who I wanted to win before the game. But with the opening kickoff, I started cheering for the Giants. I'm tired of the wrong Giants winning a championship. Pitchers and catchers report soon.

All About Me

Here's all about me that I want to show on this blog: [updated 02-03-08]

Steve Scott is a first and last name, not two first names.

There are fully a third as many Scotts as Joneses in the phone book.

I am almost 44 years old.

I have blond hair and blue eyes.

I am married with three boys, the first two adopted and the youngest born to my wife.

We have been married seven years, but first met in 1983.

I was born, raised and live in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. I have moved 14 times, yet never more than a few miles from my birth place.

I was born with a tooth, had it pulled when I was one day old, and had the same dentist for the first 40 years of my life.

My parents still live in the house I was born into.

I am a European mutt, a quarter German-speaking Swiss, then English, Irish, German, Swedish and pre-Soviet Lithuanian.

I am a direct descendant of a slave in the colonial South. A Swedish ancestor, servant to the king of Sweden, studying in London in the late 1600's was kidnapped and sold into the American slave trade. (Am I a prime candidate for reparations?)

I attended college at UC Berkeley in the early 80's, majoring in chemical engineering. I dropped out during my fourth year.

I am now an architect with 20 years experience with no formal schooling.

I converted to Christianity in 1994 when I was 30 years old.

I attend a non-denominational church which claims to be baptistic and Reformed.

I served as a deacon for four years.

I am a lifelong baseball fanatic, a fan of both the San Francisco Giants (life) and Oakland A's (until '95).

I like the Oakland Raiders (life) and San Francisco 49ers (until their fans became "phony whiners" shortly after their first Super Bowl win.)

I played Little League and high school baseball.

My favorite movie is Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

My favorite place to visit is my wife's favorite place to visit - San Diego. We didn't even discuss where to enjoy our honeymoon.

[Updated 02-03-08] I jog two miles every day.

My favorite cuisine is Mexican. I like Indian, too, but seldom get to enjoy it. I use hot sauce daily.

I love beer. My favorite is Guiness Stout.

I live in Martinez, California, birthplace to Joe DiMaggio and the cocktail known as the Martini.

Blogger Spell Checker Disabled?

Any others who use Blogger have their spellchecker stop working in the last few days? How about the ability to attach an image?

Stupor Bowl

I'm trying to ignore as much Super Bowl hype as possible. It makes it easier to enjoy the game once it appears. When I was younger, we used to use the halftime show as an opportunity to go outside and toss the football around. My oldest is now six, so maybe I could start a tradition with him (my three year old can join in) and play football during halftime.

I'm torn on the outcome of the game. I usually want the underdog in such a situation, but there's also an opportunity for the Patriots to supplant the vocal members of the 1972 Dolphins team. I don't like the football Giants so that might help me in my decision. I'll let my emotions decide once the game has started. I'd like a close game, unlike most of the Super Bowl routs in the past several decades. The Super Bowl is the last hurdle before pitchers and catchers report.

Too Tired To Think Straight

I had several ideas for posts lined up for tonight, but my brain went into standby mode. I wanted to add some comments to my last post as well as plop something down on eschatology. My eyelids are heaby now, (that's heavy) and I'm off to bed in a minute. I just ate some chips that I shouldn't have eaten (tortilla chips). I just brushed my teeth, too. Can I get away with not brushing after eating chips? I already took the garbage out and it's cold again tonight after several weeks of rain. My wife and three boys are sleeping and I'm off to join them. Five-thirty will come early tomorrow. It takes me about 45 minutes of snooze alarms to finally get out of bed. It's not that I'm not a morning person, but once I'm up, I stay up. Aw, nevermind. Zzzzzzzz.....

I Love Mexican Food

Mexican food is my favorite cuisine. My favorite restaurant is actaully two restaurants. El Tapatio and La Tapatia. Family owned for 25 years, there were three El Tapatio locations in my area. One was sold to another owner. They kept the same menu and added bean dip along with the tomato based salsa and jalapeno salsa. They changed the name of the restaurant by changing the gender to La. The La variety just opened a new restaurant in my neighborhood. It is wonderful. I order the Tapatio or Tapatia special every time, with a chicken enchilada.

It is such a family favorite, we had our wedding rehearsal dinner there before we got married. It caught fire a few years ago and has since been remodeled. Can't wait to eat there again.

More Favorite Songs

Some more favorite songs of various groups/artists:

Van Halen: Somebody Get Me A Doctor, Eruption, Dance The Night Away, Hot For Teacher, I'll Wait

Journey: Stone In Love, Patiently, Winds Of March

Foreigner: Long Long Way From Home, Blue Morning Blue Day, Women, Starrider

Boston: Peace Of Mind, Don't Be Afraid, Something About You, Long Time

My Favorite Barry Manilow Songs

My wife likes my sense of humor.

Re-Thinking Church Membership (Part 17)

Read the entire series of posts here.

Continuing from the same quote, in Parts 14 and 15 of my series, from Part 2 of Pulpit Magazine's article on church membership with regards to pastors' responsibilities:

Elders can shepherd the people and give an account to God for their spiritual well-being only if they know who they are; they can provide oversight only if they know those for whom they are responsible; and they can fulfill their duty to shepherd the flock only if they know who is part of the flock and who is not.

There is a large assumption here. A Christian can be a regular attender (regular assembler) of a church, obey the leaders, obey God, obey the bible, love all their brothers and sisters, and yet not be considered a member by the leaders. Because this Christian is looked at as a non-member by the leadership, they assume that God will not hold them accountable for that sheep. They feel free to ignore that sheep. And I have had elders tell me this personally.  This is scary.

Part 16 . . . . . . . . Part 18

My Favorite Sunday of Football

Tomorrow is my favorite day of football for the entire season. The conference championship games. Playoff games are a war with life and death consequences. It is late in the season with quite a bit of inclement weather. It is supposed to be 0 degrees in Green Bay tomorrow. The snow game last week was awesome.

I don't like the Superbowl because of the following reasons:

• It's a neutral site.
• There's too much media hype.
• Too many people show up that have no real interest in either team.
• Real fans aren't as plentiful as at the playoff games.
• The halftime show usually sucks and is a lot longer than usual.
• I don't like warm weather football in January.

I Love The Fog

It was very foggy this morning. It's supposed to be foggy all week. I love the fog. Visibility was just a few blocks. For some reason, the fog creates a cozy, comfortable feeling. Sound is dampened. This is the thick ground fog as opposed to the overhead San Francisco type of fog.

I grew up between two ridges in a little "valley." Fog would sit in this valley and take longer to burn off during the day. I remember times it was so foggy in my neighborhood that I had to drive with my head out the opened driver side door in order to see the dashed line on the road. Tomorrow morning should be another nice day for weather.

Pulp Fiction

I just watched Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction for the first time. I had no idea what to expect, as the 90's was kind of my lost decade and didn't pay much attention to cultural things back then. Aside from the f-word being used in two out of three words, it was difficult for me to figure out what the point was. But it was definitely one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. My favorite line was when Harvey Keitel said to Travolta and Jackson, drenched in blood and not realizing that they needed a change of clothes, "You look like a couple of guys who just blew somebody's head off." I haven't laughed that hard in months. If anything, I can now say that I've seen the movie.

Saddam Hussein Flocked His Christmas Tree

Vache Folle pointed out in the comment section that my last post had a Saddam Hussein label. I'm sure this was a mistake, but I now realize that it applies. I just read an article that traced the roots of the Baath party in Iraq to the Eastern Orthodox church. They celebrate Christmas. So, I'm sure that Saddam flocked his tree.

No Flocking and Trash Day

This year we got a flocked Christmas tree at the request of our six year old. Never again. It made a mess of the house, mess of the yard, the garbage company's tree pickup policy doesn't allow flocked trees. So I had to cut it up and put it in the greens can. Too much time. It still smelled good, though.

Thursday is the hallowed day in our neighborhood. Trash day. The last two weeks it was Friday because the garbage company gave its employees Christmas and New Year's off. So I had extra space in the can this week to throw unconventional stuff. Can't wait for next Thursday!

Mrs. Scott

I am married to Mrs. Scott. She cooked a mean dinner tonight for my dad's birthday party. Oven fried chicken, mashed potatoes and a tasty green bean dish with caramelized onions and almond slivers, homemade biscuits. The chocolate birthday cake was delicious. She's a great cook.

But the even better thing is that she's a graduate of the prestigious, world famous California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, with certificates in baking and pastry arts. She worked a number of years as a professional baker before we married. And, yes, it tastes as good as it sounds. I am blessed.

More On Singleness

Thanks to each who commented on my recent post on singleness. My good friend Shelly wrote some about the expectations of others and the difficulty in dealing with that. During my singleness as a Christian, I also had to deal with the expectations of others in the context of all the various doctrines of marriage/divorce/remarriage, some of which are rigid salvation-dependent doctrines. I had friends who expected that since I was previously divorced that I was to remain single. Others thought it okay to remarry. Still others thought it my duty to remarry. Yet others thought I needed to pursue and reconcile with my ex-wife. Several close friends even told me that if I decided to remarry, since I was married previously, that they wouldn't attend my wedding because that would be giving a blessing to adultery. As "Christians" they couldn't bless adultery.

Also, since internet dating was in its infancy, reactionary conservative Christians had yet to consider the possibility of God allowing it as not sinful. Additionally, I had read Joshua Harris' book "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" and fell into the trap of viewing his book as "the biblical" way to look at dating instead simply his own personal convictions. I hurt several women as a result. I then kissed "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" goodbye. There are those who advocate the "courtship" system (man-made system, no less) and condemn those who "date," even if they do so without sin. Some who "date" actually unknowingly follow the courtship system, but since they don't know that there are self-appointed priests of relationships out there that christen the system with the name "courtship", they are condemned.

With all the talk about contentment during singlehood, I think the least content people are the ones who place the expectations on singles. They are not content to leave the lives of others alone. They don't believe that singles can discern God's will from reading the bible. They manufacture doctrines and condemn those who don't fit with their religious utopias. How would they know what I have to deal with on a day to day basis? Job's friends, they. Jesus said to his disciples that some were born eunuchs, some are made eunuchs by men, and some make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom, and that not everybody could accept such a statement. Yeah, Jesus, I know.

Now for a clarification on my first post. I don't have a problem with matchmaking or matchmakers (yes, Steve Schlissel has a matchmaking service) or with friends helping out by suggesting somebody special, as long as the person they "help" is okay with it.

Drive-By Shootings In The Blogging World

"He who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him." Proverbs 18:13

I have noticed with the technology of blogging, combined with Google and other search engines, that it is easy to search for one's favorite pet peeve topic, find somebody's blog who mentions it, get royally pissed off, leave a flaming comment, then go away for ever. Or until the blogger responds, then an argument can start. Many blogs I've read over the [few] years have had such a problem with this that they've had to radically alter their comment sections - or even blogs - to avoid this. Many bloggers don't mind comments that oppose their viewpoint, as long as it's done civilly. Some blogs even offer a topic and encourage debate in the comment section. I don't have a problem with this, but my concern here is with the anonymous flaming.

I've had a few drive-by's from anonymous strangers. It's just a part of the blogging world we live in. But to avoid doing this myself, I've learned to read any blog new to me for a while to get the flavor of the blog; to get to know the character of the blogger; to get to know the blogger in a more personal way. Often, drive-by's miss the point, miss the context, miss the opportunity for good interaction. So, get to know what you're responding to before you respond.

Neither Rain, Nor Snow, Nor Sleet...

I am a daily, morning jogger. Occasionally I miss a day because I'm behind schedule or due to illness. Overall I average over six days per week. In 15 years, I have never once missed a day of jogging due to the weather. Until today. I have jogged in rain, storms, snow, slush, below freezing temps, etc. But the west coast has been hit with a monster storm. There are 40 mph winds with gusts to 60 mph. Rain, flooding. Above 1000 feet in elevation there are hurricane force winds, with areas in the mountains near Lake Tahoe that are being hit with category three hurricane gusts of 140 mph. Driving to work today was a fun one and I was reassured that I made the right decision to not run. I can't wait for the drive home.

The Gift of Singleness?

I came across this article at Better Bibles blog about the idea of singleness being a gift from God. A Carolyn McCulley book on women's singleness is looked at (along with a linked critical review) in light of a mistranslation of the bible to give the impression that singleness is a gift from God. It brings back some memories of being single and observing the lives of other singles.

I don't believe singleness is a gift in the biblical sense, like tongues or prophesy. Singleness is often a grave difficulty for those who desire to be married. I should know, I was single for a number of years. But there's a problem because there are often blame and guilt games being played by people who think they have the final word on the subject. Some wallow in self pity. Some blame the church. Some blame women. Some blame men. Those blamed blame back. Some just drop the "God is Sovereign" bomb and demand contentment from others. The critical review in the link I provided blamed the flight of men from our churches as to why so many women are single.

In my experience, there is a shortage of women in the churches. But that's only because I have attended doctrinally oriented Reformed churches that place a high emphasis on analytical theology. Women aren't drawn to doctrinal zealots. In my first church, the single men outnumbered the women by 10:1. And the women were beyond homely. But the men were just as weird. My next church had a few women, but their potential for being my wife was obscured by a neo-puritan prairie muffin Little House on the Prairie type of aura. Some of my friends needed to recruit good looking, socially normal women from large Arminian or Charismatic churches and convert them to being Calvinists. Some engaged in "missionary dating" with attractive unbelievers. Then there are the giddy married women who act as self-appointed matchmakers who don't always produce good things. There are plenty of teachings about dating and courtship, the internet, arranged marriages, all in competition.

Contrary to those who harp on God's sovereignty in providing a wife from within one's own church, I went outside as well. I don't envy those Christians who are single and having a hard time finding a mate, but I have little sympathy for those who play the blame game. I'm glad I didn't marry one of those. Singles should be encouraged - to whatever they can be, either as single or married - but not condemned for dating or internet matchmaking. We have enough legalists without issues of singleness, dating and marriage being added to the forbidden list.

My Favorite AC/DC Songs

Okay, this goes waaaay past worldly. This is strictly forbidden in fundamentalist circles.

My faves: It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll), Sin City, Bad Boy Boogie, Dog Eat Dog, T.N.T., Beating Around The Bush, Girls Got Rhythm, Shoot To Thrill, Hell's Bells.

Honorable mention: Highway To Heck (Baptist re-mix)

College Football: Rankings, Bowls and BCS

I like college football. I'm not a fan, but I like it. I like bowl games in general, but don't watch much of the regular season because most of it takes place before the World Series is over. My loyalties are simple; I attended the University of California, Berkeley. In NCAA terms, they are known as "California" and "Cal" and are officially the "Golden Bears" but mostly known as the "Bears." So, I hate Stanford, our bitter rival. We are the ones that lateraled a kickoff five times through their marching band in the greatest football play ever.

I don't like the current BCS bowl system. But I have some problems with the traditional rankings system, too. I don't mind rankings, but question the method the polls use in moving teams up and down during the season. A team's record seems to have more bearing on their ranking than whether they are a better team. For example, let's say sometime during the season there are six teams that are undefeated and ranked one through six, and number one plays number two. If number one wins by one point, it is likely that number two will fall below all other teams below them, and maybe even below some one-loss teams who they are now in competition with. But if number one and number two play, number one should win, but not by much. So if number two loses to number one by one point, which they should, they should still be the number two team because they gave no evidence that they are suddenly inferior to other teams below them. Those other teams never played the number one team.

Many argue that a playoff system is best. I happen to like the pre-BCS traditional bowl system and debate over number one. Does the division 1-A (or whatever they are these days) need a playoff system and a national champion? There are over a thousand college football teams, so it's more complex than the NFL. In any case, the BCS seems to combine the worst of the old system with the worst of a playoff system. I would prefer either the old system or a playoff system to the BCS.

New Year's Resolution

This year, I'm keeping my traditional New Year's Resolution of not making any at all. It keeps me safe from failure and frustration. I won't feel guilty, either. I just reckon I'll change things when they need to happen.

California Weather

The weather here has been generally on the cold side (okay, James, VF, Gene, Bruce and VS, I know you people are laughing) with lows near or slightly below freezing. Several days of cold, foggyish, misty, dewey, rainy days. Not just rain, but gray weather. I love foggy weather, and it won't get here in full force until January. Jogging in the morning is getting harder.

My Favorite Ten Years After Songs

Who? No, not The Who. Ten Years After. For those who don't know them, or don't quite remember, Ten Years After is (was) an English blues/rock group that entered the music scene during the second British Invasion (1967). They are led by guitarist Alvin Lee and had only a few hits. I'm Going Home became popular as they performed it live at the Woodstock festival, then the 1972 FM radio hit I'd Love To Change The World, which can still be heard occasionally on classic rock stations. Anyway, I became a huge fan, collected all their albums and still listen.

Here they are: Woman Trouble, Spider In My Web (studio version as a never previously released bonus track on the remastered Alvin Lee & Company album), Going Back To Birmingham, Portable People, Once There Was A Time, As The Sun Still Burns Away, Working On The Road, Help Me (both the studio and live versions)

Seasons of Life

"There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven..." Ecclesiastes 3:1

My family is going through what I'll call a distinct season of life. We have added three children to our household in the last four years or so. We are so busy with family stuff that other areas of life like church are placed in a different category of importance. We have trouble making all the church meetings and functions like we used to. Most of the mid-week bible studies we can attend aren't able to accommodate our children, and we can't afford baby sitters to do this. We're mostly home bodies these last few years. We don't hang out with the same people anymore and if we do, it isn't at the same places.

Most other families we talk to share the same experience. It's a phase - or season - of life. As a Christian, I did completely different things before I was married. Then after marriage, we did different things yet. Then after having children, different things yet. Others tell us that it will change yet again after our children grow older.

It is difficult for me to get this, but I know I shouldn't judge my spirituality - or "walk" - by my past experiences. Seasons change every few months, and they do in life as well.

A Starbucks Christmas

A west coast grocery store chain - the recently renewed Lucky chain - was open on Christmas Day from 8 to 5. Mrs. Scott needed some chocolate chips for a cheesecake glaze, so I went to the store to get a pack. There were many people there. I noticed many people coming out of the store with those bright red and green Starbucks coffee drinks. Once in the store, there were many more people drinking Starbucks. Only later did it occur to me that all Starbucks stores were closed on Christmas and that people were using the Starbucks stand inside the store to get their Starbucks fix.

Tis The Season To Be Slow About Blogging

This is the season to be slow about blogging. Last year most of my blogroll was slow. I presume everybody is with famliy to celebrate Christmas. Maybe I'll lighten up on my heavy themes in my blogs this next week and post some fluff and human interest stories. If I get a theology brainstorm, maybe I'll just save them for later. Who knows?

My Favorite U2 Songs

My faves: absolute #1: Where The Streets Have No Name. (One of my all time faves from any group)

Others: Sunday Bloody Sunday, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, I Will Follow, Gloria, Bullet The Blue Sky, Vertigo, A Man And A Woman

Re-Thinking Church Membership (Part 16)

Read the entire series of posts here.

I'm taking a slight detour from the train of thought on pastors' responsibilities and commenting on a very important bible passage that I included in Part 15:

The Apostle Peter exhorts church elders and says, "...shepherd the flock of God among you, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock." (1 Peter 5:2-3.)

The phrase "those allotted to your charge" is vitally important in establishing the who and how of pastors' responsibility, but most important of all it establishes how membership is established and Who establishes it. Notice very carefully the grammatical structure of this phrase. "Those" are the sheep. "Your" is a possessive pronoun that indicates that it is the elders (pastors) who have the charge . "Allotted" is the verb that ties the sheep to the shepherds' charge.

Now, it is not possible from the grammar - as the elders of Grace Community Church wrongly claim when they say, "those who have submitted themselves to the care and the authority of the elders" are the ones they have responsibility over - it is not possible that the sheep are the ones who do the allotting. The sheep are allotted to the charge of the pastors. The allotting is passive - it is done to them. If it were the sheep that did the allotting, as the Grace elders claim, then the verse would read, "those who have allotted themselves to your charge." It doesn't say that. The sheep are not the ones who allot, they are the ones who have been allotted.

Also, it is not possible from the grammar that the pastors/elders are the ones who do the allotting. Otherwise the verse would read, "those whom you have allotted to your own charge." It doesn't say that either.

The only possibility from the grammar is that the object that does the allotting is neither the sheep nor the shepherds. So Who is the one who allots?  The bible tells us:

"For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body..." (1 Cor. 12:13)

"But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired." (1 Cor. 12:18)

"But God has so composed the body..." (1 Cor. 12:24)

The answer is God. He allots sheep to the charge of shepherds. This He does by assembling the sheep. It is God's assembly, not the shepherd's assembly.  The elders of GCC have made a large mistake in how they view relationships in the church.  Their teachings on the matter are widespread.  It is no great task, then, to realize that large problems can result from large problems in how one views the church.

Part 15 . . . . . . . . Part 17

Rock Anthem Burnout

About 15 years ago I got burned out on the rock anthem songs. You know those long, signature songs by various classical rock groups that were endlessly played on the radio? Stairway To Heaven, Free Bird, Won't Get Fooled Again, Carry On Wayward Son, Hotel California, Light My Fire, Bohemian Rhapsody. You know? Man? Dude? Dude!

Slight Format Change

I have a list of ongoing blog series in the left margin. For some of the series I have taken each post and collected them into one post. I have found that this is difficult, time consuming and frustrating. Blogger's post editor isn't quite what I need for this task.

In light of this, I am now going to use labels exclusively for entire series. The existing collection posts will still be available in the margin, but at the end of each I will put a link to the series label for to access the continuation of the series. I know of at least one link to a series from another blogger, so I want to keep the collection post. I hope this doesn't cause problems for any readers who access them.

Re-Thinking Church Membership (Part 15)

Read the entire series of posts here.

Continuing from the same quote, in Part 14 of my series, from Part 2 of Pulpit Magazine's article on church membership with regards to pastors' responsibilities:

Elders can shepherd the people and give an account to God for their spiritual well-being only if they know who they are; they can provide oversight only if they know those for whom they are responsible; and they can fulfill their duty to shepherd the flock only if they know who is part of the flock and who is not.

The Apostle Peter exhorts church elders and says, "...shepherd the flock of God among you, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock." (1 Peter 5:2-3.) The elders of Grace Community Church seem unsure who God's sheep are that they need to shpeherd. But the bible says that they are to shepherd those who are among you. If the sheep are there, they are to be shepherded. All it takes is for an elder to be among them for them to receive shepherding. It doesn't require the sheep's initiation. If a sheep is assembling with other believers, he is to receive shepherding. It doesn't first require the activity of placing himself on a list or having the elders do it for him.

Part 14 . . . . . . . . Part 16

My Favorite Who Songs

I used to be a huge fan of The Who in high school and college. That waned some, but I still like them. Here are my favorite Who songs:

Faves: Bargain, Blue Red and Grey, Summertime Blues (Live at Leeds), I Can't Explain, The Kids Are Alright

Next level: Substitute, Young Man Blues (Live at Leeds), Boris The Spider, I'm Free, Join Together, The Real Me, Heinz Baked Beans jingle

My Favorite Beach Boys Songs

I was born and raised in California, have blue eyes and blond hair, go to the beach several times a year, really like the Beach Boys, but just aquired my first album at age 43. Here are my favorite Beach Boys songs:

Faves: I Get Around; 409; Surfin' USA; Fun, Fun, Fun; Help Me Rhonda; Barbara Ann

Next best: Surfin' Safari; Little Deuce Coupe; Sloop John B; When I Grow Up To Be A Man; Catch A Wave; Kokomo

Re-Thinking Church Membership (Part 14)

Read the entire series of posts here.

Again from Part 2 of Pulpit Magazine's article on church membership with regards to pastors' responsibilities:

Elders can shepherd the people and give an account to God for their spiritual well-being only if they know who they are; they can provide oversight only if they know those for whom they are responsible; and they can fulfill their duty to shepherd the flock only if they know who is part of the flock and who is not.

Jesus said, "Shepherd My sheep." (John 21:16). He did not say, "Shepherd those who you have decided for yourselves are your sheep." Jesus assumed that His sheep were discernible to His shepherds. The pastors at Grace Community church have admitted that they don't know who to shepherd. So instead of shepherding all Christians who assemble, they shepherd only those who both assemble and who come forward to submit themselves to the man-made "formal" membership created by the pastors.

It should be noted here that I am not singling out Grace Community Church and their elders. Their exact teaching is very widespread throughout evangelical churches. It just so happens that they posted an article right after I started this series that contains a great deal of points that I will be writing about. I plan to give many more examples from other sources in future posts.

Part 13 . . . . . . . . Part 15

Re-Thinking Church Membership (Part 13)

Read entire series in one article here, or as a collection of all posts here.

Quoting from Part 2 of Pulpit Magazine's article on church membership with regards to pastors'/elders' responsibilities in shepherding God's sheep:

The specific duties given to these elders presuppose a clearly defined group of church members who are under their care...Those responsibilities require that there be a distinguishable, mutually understood membership in the local church. Elders can shepherd the people and give an account to God for their spiritual well-being only if they know who they are; they can provide oversight only if they know those for whom they are responsible; and they can fulfill their duty to shepherd the flock only if they know who is part of the flock and who is not.

As I've already shown, a "distinguishable, mutually understood" membership in the local church means those Christians who are assembled. This is very simple, yet the authors of this article, along with the elder that interacts in the comments section, have the idea that pastors have no idea who God's sheep are. Their solution is to create a scheme where the sheep are burdened with the responsibility to come forward and submit themselves to these men. Only those who do so are deemed worthy of shepherding. Continuing with their thought process:

The elders of a church are not responsible for the spiritual well-being of every individual who visits the church or who attends sporadically. Rather, they are primarily responsible to shepherd those who have submitted themselves to the care and the authority of the elders, and this is done through church membership.

It must be noted here that sheep are sheep, prone to wander. Sheep may not even know to "come forward" or if they do, they may be in such a difficult spot in life that they aren't even able to. Jesus spoke of the shepherd who left the 99 to go after the one straying sheep. With the Grace Community model of church from this article, the pastors might not even know that a sheep is missing. A comment from JackW in the comments section really brings light to the issue:

Jesse, Is it possible that this formal membership deal came about because Elders wanted to define their own responsibility and accountability? An Elder should have a pretty close relationship with the One who builds His church and knows who His sheep are, right? An Elder should have the discernment to know who is under his overview, right? … or have they exchanged discernment for a list? Will the Elder not be accountable for all the goats that are on his list as well as the sheep that are not? If the Lord builds His church by sending a sheep your way, are you not going to provide accountability or minister to him because he is not on your list? “… all of this necessarily entails membership.” Sorry, that’s not making sense to me.

Here JackW hits the nail on the head. Many pastors are defining their own responsibility and accountability, ignoring what God already wrote on the subject, and as a result they can't even see God's sheep. They have blinded themselves.

Part 12 . . . . . . . . Part 14